Aviation reporting

Maybe that's not what a plane crash feels like

LAST WEEK, I highlighted a story in the New York Times Magazine by Noah Gallagher Shannon, a writer from Brooklyn who was on a plane that he felt was about to crash. Since then Mr Shannon's piece has received a bunch more attention, not all of it positive. The Atlantic's James Fallows wrote on Thursday that "points both large and small in the account sounded phony to me". On Friday, Mr Fallows received a response from Hugo Lindgren, the editor of the New York Times Magazine. Here it is:

Some commenters have seized on certain details of "The Plane Was About to Crash. Now What?" by Noah Gallagher Shannon in order to question whether this emergency landing happened (and perhaps even whether the author was on the flight). But there is simply no question. The author was on Frontier Airlines flight #727 on June 30, 2011, from Washington to Denver. It was an Airbus 320. The author sat in seat 12A. This flight was diverted to Philadelphia. The FAA reports that the pilot declared an emergency due to a low hydraulics indicator light and that upon landing the plane needed to be towed to the gate. Frontier airlines confirms that an Airbus A320 experienced "a maintenance issue on departure from Washington DCA. The flight diverted to Philadelphia due to easier access. The aircraft and all passengers landed safely."

Did the author's personal recollection represent an accurate picture of what he experienced on that flight? Well, only he can attest to his own experience. But the author did provide receipts and took notes after the flight to back up his account. And his recollection, when run by an aviation specialist, did seem entirely plausible to him. While some of the author's language may have been imprecise, his recollection of his experience was consistent with recollections of passengers in similar air incidents. Naturally, not every detail matches everybody else's experience. Surely even people on that plane would remember it differently. The story was about the personal experience of a fearful moment. The author did not present himself as an authority in airline technology or emergency procedures. The airline, in fact, refused his request for more information about what happened after the fact. He only reported what he heard and felt, which is consistent with the magazine's Lives page, where the account was published.

The basic fact that no one can dispute is that the author of the column was on a flight to Denver that was diverted after the pilot reported a problem. Details like whether the crew followed standard procedure -- or varied from it -- or whether the lights were dimmed or how that looked to him, cannot be credibly contested by people who were not on the plane, even if their own experience of an emergency situation might have been different.

The piece was fact-checked before publication, and after questions were raised, editors reviewed it again, with the full cooperation of the writer. All the key points appear to be corroborated, and we have not found any evidence to undercut any significant elements of the narrative.

Hugo Lindgren

Editor, New York Times Magazine

Like Mr Fallows, I am confident that Mr Shannon was on the Washington-Denver flight in question, there was a problem, and the flight landed safely in Philadelphia. But perhaps my poppycock detector should have been more finely tuned before I linked to the piece. Mr Fallows writes that he doubts the veracity of "most of the detail, color, and sequence-of-events in the story".

Surely some enterprising reporter will soon hunt down other people who were on the Frontier flight in question and determine whether their recollections mirror Mr Shannon's. (If the incident happened as Mr Shannon recalls it, it is not something you would soon forget.) In the meantime, Mr Shannon owes the reading public a fuller explanation of exactly how he composed his story and whether he stands by the key details and sequence of events in the piece. As Clive Irving wrote in the Daily Beast on Saturday, the important thing to remember here is that no statistic can "overpower the emotional response to flying". That's exactly what Mr Shannon's piece triggers—an emotional response. But is it based on something true? I'm eager to hear more from the author.

UPDATE, June 15: On June 14, Mr Fallows published the transcript of a conversation he had with Mr Shannon about the story. You can find it here.

Readers' comments

Seems unlikely Noah Gallagher Shannon will respond to any of the (rightfully) sceptics.

For those who can't get enough of this seemingly fabrication, Inside Higher Ed has a delightful takedown of not just the original story, but also NYT Magazine's response. Comments are wonderful as well.

One nugget: "Hugo Lindgren is right, different people would remember the incident differently, but it doesn’t appear that Noah Gallagher Shannon made any attempt to recall it accurately at all."

I know what poetic license is, and what Shannon engaged in appears to have crossed that by a country mile.

Jim Fallows has just posted another update. Money quote: "There was never a problem with the landing gear. There was never a reason for the pilots to come out, sweat-drenched, and say brave words to the possibly doomed souls aboard. Based on what Patrick Smith has learned, there was never a reason to shut off all the lights and electricity in the plane. Memory is unreliable. But the Times Magazine story appears to be something more than that, and worth another look by the paper."

And Patrick Smith, from Ask the pilot, has gathered emergence codes and concludes as follows:
"Shannon had thrown up enough red flags to begin with, but this puts it over the top, tilting his entire account from one of eye-rolling embellishment toward one of outright fabrication."